Kristy Medina

Today was the second class where we discussed Jorge Luis Borges' Fictional short stories. Janie started off the class by presenting 'Man on Pink Corner' through Jeopardy, which was really creative. She asked questions based off the characters and some main plot questions. Janie then explained the story briefly telling us the main concepts. Finally she redirects some questions she had towards the story to the class like why the story ended with the narrator looking at his knife.

Next, Carly and Kristin presented 'Et Cetera.' Their presentation was a PowerPoint where they discussed each individual section of 'Et Cetera.' Professor Diviani told us about flash fiction which is almost the same format as 'Et Cetera.' Flash fiction is a collection of shorter stories within a short story, made up of 15 or so words. Carly and Kristin summarized each section of the story and in the end they brainstormed some possible reasons as to why the sections were compiled together to form 'Et Cetera.' They came up with some reasons like a religious/ magical connection and a connection through moral tales.

Finally, Professor Diviani discussed the two short stories. The two stories were contrasted: 'Man on Pink Corner' is more of a Western, descriptive, action story while 'Et Certa' is an exciting, magical realist story. We discussed Borges' language as concise but profound and an example was found in 'Man on Pink Corner.' A continuation of Borges' writing style was discussed. Borges is a versatile, innovative writer not only for Spanish writers (he paved the way for writers like Marques) but also for his fantasy fiction style of writing (for stories like "The Alcamist"). Borges' writing is creative because it is historical but merged with a magic-like element. On topic of fantasy fiction, the class ended with a deeper view of the first section of 'Et Cetera' where religion was discussed. In this short story, we see that Borges references the Bible and other short stories like "1001 Arabian Nights." We see that Borges is against institutionalized religion and criticizes their formulized beliefs. For example, in 'A Theologian in Death' the theologian is dying and is stuck between two worlds and the angels criticize the theologian for not writing about charity work. This shows Borges' beliefs that institutionalized religion constraints an individual's freedom and personal rights.